After the defeat of Prague, London is the leading city in the world, with its mighty magicians at the helm. The magicians with their unwilling slave entities (in increasing order of power: sprites, imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, mariads and so on) control the huge British empire with an iron fist. Most commoners are afraid of magicians, and/or hate them. Their magical slaves hate them and try to find even the smallest leeway to harm their masters. The magicians hide their names by taking “official” names, thereby making it hard for other magicians and their slaves to retaliate.

All in all, “Bartimaues Trilogy” by Jonathan Stroud is the story of an unwilling djinn, his once-upon-a-time innocent master and a girl who fights against them in the world of selfish and power-hungry magicians.

Recently, a teacher wanted her students to read a book she liked. Given their past comments, she felt she would face considerable opposition when she asked them to read it. So, she told them the outline of the book:

The book is about a young orphan, she told them. He lives with his relatives, who hate him. But as he grows up, he realizes his potential. He meets new friends at his school, and learns about friendship, loyalty and other values. He excels at his favourite sport. Then, there is a mass-murderer on the loose, who has killed the hero’s parents.

Then she asked them to write a page about whether they would like to read the book, and what will happen at the end.